Ep. 15: The 3 Stooges' Soccer
is the fifteenth episode of Gosei Sentai Dairanger. This episode introduces the comedic rivals The Three Gorma Stooges. Synopsis When his sister is abducted by a trio of weird Gorma Minions, Ryo must face them in a game of soccer in order to get her back. Plot An old lady finds a large, strange telephone in the city and tries to use it, only to find out it's a female Gorma who was taking a nap. Then a gravestone Gorma approaches the woman, scaring her off. The two Gorma, then, start conversing as they wait on a third Gorma, who rides in on a motorbike, introducing himself as Boss Kamikaze His comrades, Company President Gravestone and Teacher Telephone, question him on whether he has a plan to get rid of the Dairangers; Kamikaze responds by displaying a soccer ball. Elsewhere, Ryo is at his shop, making gyoza for his teammates to try, while his younger sister Yoko pesters him to go out with him. Ryo steadfastly refuses, much to her chagrin, and she decides to go by herself. Unbeknownst to them, the Gorma trio is spying on them, and Kamikaze has the idea of kidnapping Yoko to lure Ryo into a trap. Later, Yoko is by herself at the docks, when suddenly a giant soccer ball starts bouncing after her. She tries to escape, but ends up knocked out and abducted by Kamikaze. Ryo immediately shows up and demands them to return her, but Kamikaze challenges him to a soccer match at Hell's Valley at noon, but he is to go alone. Accepting their challenge, Ryo decides not to tell his teammates a word, calling off his invitation for gyoza without explaining why. They get upset at this, most of all Shoji, who thinks that Ryo is just being selfish. In response, Ryo punches him and runs off to face the Gorma alone. While Shoji is still fuming, Lin just looks on, wondering whether there is some hidden motivation behind Ryo's acts. As Ryo runs away, he silently apologizes to his friends, as this is a very personal matter. At Hell's Valley, Zydos gives the Gorma trio (decked in soccer socks and boots), who has assembled an entire team with a few Cotpotros, a stern warning: either they win the match, or the rest of the Gorma will turn their backs on them. As he leaves, exactly one minute before noon, Ryo shows up. Telephone shows him Yoko, held hostage in a red balloon floating above them. Impulsively, Ryo tries to break her out, but the balloon shocks him as he reaches it. Kamikaze then explains the match's rules: if Ryo can score a goal, they will release Yoko. But if the Gorma Team scores (as they demonstrate with a RyuuRanger dummy), the goalposts on Ryo's side of the field will kill him by electrocution. Resigned, Ryo accepts by transforming into RyuuRanger. As the match starts, Ryo has no trouble dribbling through the opposite defense, despite being the only player in his team, and with an unguarded goal. Not wanting him to win so easily, Kamikaze summons his bike, Fuujin, to race upfield and tackle Ryo for the ball. When Ryo calls him out on this, Kamikaze states that anything goes in the match (except, obviously, for using the hands). The Gorma, then, form around Ryo and start pelting him with their shots. After Ryo's knocked down, Kamikaze rallies his team to rush for the goal as he himself gets in position at the (imaginary) penalty box to receive a pass. Extenuated, Ryo's unable to catch up in time to deny the opposition, and the goal shocks him as the ball rolls in, causing him to demorph. While the Gorma celebrate, Telephone notes that Ryo is still alive and, as he struggles to stand again, Kamikaze orders the Triple Hurricane, a final, deadly shot, involving his comrades. Kamikaze scores again, but this time, nothing happens, much to Ryo and the Gorma Stooges' confusion. The goalposts suddenly disappear, only to reappear further down the field, with the other Dairangers standing beneath them, Shoji revealing that the other goal was an illusion created by Daigo. As Ryo joins them, Shoji pretends to hit him, only to chide his friend on his recklessness. The five then transform into Dairangers, this time dubbing themselves the "Soccer Squadron: Tokyo Chi-Powered Bombers". After the Gorma Stooges introduce themselves, play resumes, this time with all five Dairangers (Kazu serving as goalie). The four outfield Bomber players are tackled each by a Gorma player, and Kamikaze takes the chance to make a break for the goal. Kamikaze's shot is saved by Kazu, who punches the ball away, but it rebounds off the crossbar and Telephone volleys it in. Kazu uses his Time Reversal technique to turn back time before Kamikaze takes the shot. This time, the ball lands safely into Kazu's hands. He sends it downfield to Shoji, who has trouble getting through the Gorma's defensive line. He uses his superspeed to receive a pass from himself, eluding his markers, then performs a long pass to Daigo, who one-twos it to Ryo. As Gravestone tries to intercept the pass, Lin gets them out of play with her Straight-Line Tornado, ensuring Ryo's in a good position to get the ball and slot it home, which he does with his Lightning Shot, sending the Gorma keeper hurtling into the goal as he attempts to save, causing him to explode and freeing Yoko, who lands safely in Ryo's arms. The Gorma Stooges, as a last resort, use Growth Bombs on themselves to grow giant. Ryo, in response, summons Ryusei-Oh which, in its Chi Beast form, coils itself around Kamikaze and Telephone tries tickling it to get it off. She and Gravestone manage to throw Ryusei-Oh against a cliff, and Ryo fights back by converting Ryusei-Oh into its Chi Warrior form, as the other Dairangers join him in the cockpit. Kamikaze decides to return to the soccer schtick, challenging the Ryusei-Oh to dodge his shots with a football that explodes upon touching any part of the body other than the legs and feet. Ryusei-Oh is struck and topples to the ground. The Gorma Stooges, then, decide to administer the coup De grace, with each of them shooting an explosive ball. Determined, Ryo performs a triple Windmill Kick to send the balls back to the Gorma trio. The balls explode upon their chests and they are defeated. Afterwards, the Dairangers, along with Yoko, celebrate their victory by tasting Ryo's gyoza, which turns out to be great (though Lin uses the opportunity to prank Ryo by telling him the gyoza is improperly made). Unbeknownst to them, the Three Gorma Stooges have survived their battle, and Kamikaze swears revenge as they walk - or rather, limp into the sunset, with Telephone falling off her crutches. Cast * : * : * : * : * : * : Guest Cast * : * : * : *Yoko: *Grandma: Notes *'Eyecatch' **'Featured Dairanger (Pre-Break):' RyuuRanger **'Featured Dairanger (Post-Break):' RyuuRanger * Starting with this episode and then ending with the final one, three parts of the opening sequence would show clips from the episode. They wouldn't always be in the order that they were shown in the episode itself, or sometimes one, two or all of the scenes from the opening would be cut from the episode entirely. * This is the only episode where the Stooges are adversaries for Ryo. When they appear next time, they will become Shoji's adversaries for the remainder of the series, while Ryo's true adversary will appear at a later time. * During a Sentai-like introduction, the Three Gorma Stooges homage various Sentai team introductions and aspects: **Though appearing to work similar to the Dairanger's own foot movements, the stomping of feet is similar to an aspect of the team introduction of Battle Fever J. **Their line about "chasing their dreams" is similar to the goal of Dynaman. **The final team stance of the Stooges is similar to the team stance used by both the Gorengers and Goggle V. DVD Releases *''Gosei Sentai Dairanger'' Volume 2 features episodes 11-20.http://www.toei-video.co.jp/DVD/dairenger.html *The complete Dairanger series was released in North America by Shout! Factory in 2015. See Also (President Gravestone costume) References Category:Gosei Sentai Dairanger Category:Sentai episodes Category:Written by Naruhisa Arakawa